Secondary stats that measure a character’s ability to perform special attacks isn’t new to RPGs - they’re just about as old as the genre itself! Typically you’ll have a “Magic Point” (MP) system to gauge a character’s capacity in this regard, with Stamina becoming more prevalent in the last two decades or so, but in keeping with its setting Code Vein II eschews tradition for a functional equivalent which is arguably just as ambivalent as Magic Points in the form of Ichor. This page will cover how Ichor works in Code Vein II, including information on using Jails to drain Ichor from bleeding enemies.

Page Breakdown¶

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Using weapon skills, offensive formae and some defensive formae will consume Ichor.

Ichor Use and Effects¶

In addition to HP, LP and Stamina you have an Ichor gauge, which is functionally your MP in Code Vein II. Ichor is relatively static value determined largely by whatever Blood Code you currently have equipped, with more “magey” Blood Codes (read: classes) having larger Ichor pools. These numbers tend to be fairly low, with Ichor measuring in the tens and twenties for much of the game, and Ichor expenditure in the 1-5 range, so you won’t be busting out calculators to determine how many special attacks or activated abilities you can use in combat.

Ichor is generally consumed when you use weapon skills (read: Weapon Formae), but certain Defensive Formae also incur Ichor cost when used, as do Offensive Formae. In effect, if you want to do anything fancy aside from normal attacks, charged attacks, dodging and perhaps blocking, it’s going to cost Ichor, which may sound rough, but you’d be surprised how much you can do in an average combat encounter without bothering with more than that.

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You’ll recover Ichor by striking with your Jail, performing a “Drain Attack” - hit the enemy to inflict bleed beforehand to increase the Ichor your Drain Attacks will restore.

Recovering Ichor - Bleed and Drain Attacks¶

Using Ichor is easy enough, but recovering may be a bit trickier. Generally you will not recover Ichor passively, although it can be restored by using Mistles, and certain Blood Codes may recover Ichor under various circumstances. Still, recovering Ichor by respawning most enemies seems a bit counter-productive, no?

Fortunately there’s another main way to recover Ichor on the field: Drain Attacks, and since Drain Attacks are closely linked with Bleed, we’ll discuss them together. In addition to normal weapons, you’ll also have a “Jail” equipped - press and select the icon to the right of the “Blood Code” to look at or change your equipped Jail. While each Jail varies in the details, they’re used to perform Drain Attacks - just press (or hold, if you want to perform a charged variant of the attack) . Drain Attacks typically have a bit of windup and usually deal moderate damage, at best, but they also leech Ichor from struck enemies. The time commitment and relatively lackluster damage means you probably won’t be using Jails to kill enemies regularly, but if you expend Ichor regularly and you find an opening, they’re pretty much your go-to option for Ichor recovery on the field.

That said, by itself a Drain Attack doesn’t even do much as far as Ichor recovery goes, regularly stealing a measly one Ichor per hit… but they become much more effective if an enemy is bleeding. Most weapons have a “Bleed Factor” stat which determines the amount of bleed buildup afflicted whenever you deal damage, and the trick is to hit enemies a time or two with your normal attacks, then try to hit them with a Drain Attack for more Ichor recovery - a well-poked enemy can yield several Ichor with a single Drain Attack, a much better return on investment!

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Damage an enemy enough in a short enough span and you’ll be able to perform a Special Drain Attack - this is indicated by a red dot that appears on the enemy.

Staggering and Special Drain Attacks¶

Should you land enough hits on an enemy in a short enough span of time, they may become staggered. You may need to look for visual cues to this - enemies will often fall down or slump over when staggered, but the lock-on target will also turn red when an enemy is staggered and you’re close enough. Perform a Drain Attack on a staggered enemy and you’ll perform a Special Drain Attack, which has its own special animation, deals heavy damage, and recovers a huge amount of Ichor! Be on the lookout for opportunities to punish strong enemies with Special Drain Attacks to shift the odds in your favor! This probably won’t be a regular way of recouping spent Ichor, but when the opportunity arises it can have a big effect.